The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-07-07
studyinga Baby.

or Hreyer, nus puoiiSnou WIN ~,
which he has recorded the results oil
his work in new branch OF research.
He has devoted himself to studying
the growth ofintelligence and observa-
ton in his own child, beginning with
the day OF its birth, and observing its
development rather with the eye OF q
scientist than with those OF parent.
He has noted the precise moment in
which it first seemed to see things, and
The circumstances under which 1T APP
peared to begin it's thinking-the in
tellgent putting OF one thing with an
other.
81 took my baby" says the profess
or in his book, ITO the window, five
minutes after he was born. and just
as the sun was rising. His PERCEPTION
OF the light did not seem at all keen. He
opened and closed his eyes alternate
", the lids parting about an eighth oil
an inch. Somewhat later, the light
having become much brighter, the baby
opened his eyes quite wide, and IN
opening them wrinkled his forehead. |"
During the earliest days otits life, an
infant, Professor Preyer asce tanned,
rarely keeps it's eyes open. Even when
awake, it is quite as likely to keep its
eyes closed as open; and when it opens
them, it is never by one and the same
movement at first. One lid lifts. and
then the other, and sometimes the
two are held open at an unequal
width. This state OF things usually
lasts until the eleventh day.
Professor Preyer observed his
baby's first wink. For fifteen days he
shook his hand each day before the
child's open eyes. as he lay on his pill
low, without causing him, seemingly,
any fear or astonishment. On the
sixteenth day after his birth, howev.
er, the baby, winked quickly when the
same movement was made, opening
the eyes again together, and quickly.
At the end of the seventh month,
the professor found the boy quite ca
pable OF feeling and expressing aston
ishment at any act which he did not
understand.
But as early as twenty-third day OF
his life the baby noticed" as the
nurses put it; that is to say, discov-
cred that there was such thing as
movement in the world about him.
This discovery Professor Preyer
reached by experimenting with him
from day to day with moving candles.
The child lat last, on the day mention
ed, followed the movement OF the
candles, up or down or right or left,
by moving his head. The child wore,
L. nf n
telligence, as if he had made discov-
cry.
1t was only on the hundredth day
that the baby followed exactly, and
with an instant movement as precise
as a machines, the swinging OF large
pendulum, and only in the twenty
ninth month OF his life that he follow
ed, with quickness and certainty, the
flight OF q swallow.
Professor Preyer's experiments with
the child's perception OF color were
extremely Interesting, but too long to
he repeated here; but we may say
that the result OF them was to con-
vince him that the eye is especially
affected by the color red, and that at
first we have but two color impress
sons-frst, OF that which is red. and
second, OF all that is not red.
Mr.. Preyer declares that it is n
great mistake to suppose that baby
is able to smile soon after it's birth.
IL was on his twenty-sixth day that
his own baby first smiled; and the
double Joy OF the father, which was
both parental and scientific, was UNI
questionably very great. 1t is easy
to believe that for the moment the
man OF science was lost in the father.
These experiments may seem tri-
fling, but they are not so tothose who
seek accurate knowledge; and Mr.
Preyel certainly could not have
chosen a more delightful subject for
scientific research.